 |
| Robert McCracken Peck |
CHESTERTOWN, MD—In the spring of 1843, the well
known naturalist and artist John James Audubon set off from New York City on
what was to be his longest and last great expedition of discovery. With a small party of friends and associates,
the self-proclaimed “American Woodsman,”
who had recently completed his landmark work, The Birds of America, traveled by boat from Saint Louis up the
Missouri River to the mouth of the Yellowstone. Officially, he was gathering
information and specimens for a newly launched book on American mammals, but he
was also on the lookout for new birds.
In a slide lecture at Washington College on
Thursday, Nov. 15, noted historian Robert McCracken Peck will use images of
Audubon’s western paintings and the surviving specimens and artifacts gathered
during his nine-month expedition to describe this last great adventure and put
its accomplishments in context. His talk
will take place at 5 p.m. in Decker Theatre, Gibson Center for the Arts, on the
main campus, 300 Washington Avenue. The event is free and open to the public.
A Fellow of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel
University (to which Audubon was elected a corresponding member in 1831), Peck is
the author of the B.B.C. book Land of the
Eagle: A Natural History of North America and co-author of A Glorious Enterprise: The Academy of
Natural Sciences and the Making of American Science. He was a consulting curator for the
exhibition “Audubon in the West,” which traveled throughout the United States
in 2000 and 2001. A fully illustrated catalog with essays by Mr. Peck and
others accompanied the exhibition. In 2010 Peck and a colleague discovered
Audubon’s first published illustration of a bird on an Ohio bank note.
Peck’s visit to Washington College complements
the special exhibition in the College’s Kohl Gallery, “In Pursuit of Beauty: John
J. Audubon and the Golden Age of Bird Illustration,” which continues through
November 30. Peck consulted with curator Alex Castro for the exhibition. On
display are 19 prints and 20 books that showcase works by Audubon (including a
rare original watercolor of a pheasant) and other master naturalists of his
era. The Gallery is open Wednesday through Sunday, 1 to 6 p.m., and admission
is free.
 |
| Portrait of John J. Audubon |
